"Everest Will be Climbed"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22504, 22 August 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

"Everest Will be Climbed"

THE decision to make one last effort and examine tho West side of tho North Col was unanimously approved by the paity after the withdrawal to Camp I. on June 7. Tt was taken in the hope that, however slight our own chances of making an ascent of Everest in tho prevailing conditions, some information of value to future expeditions might be obtained. The fact that Mallory, in 1921, rejected this line of approach should not be allowed to rule it altogether out of consideration; he was then at an early stage of his reconnaissance, and may well have thought that an easier place must be looked for. The porters of those days were not the mountaineers .they have since become. So he passed on to discovery of the east side, of which the general angle is admittedly less steep that is one of its meretricious attractions. Again, thoso members of last year s reconnaissance party who saw the west side were very doubtful as to its possibilities, but they had not made a close examination, and were not prepared to say definitely that it could not be climbed. As, therefore, the usual route had been conclusively proved impracticable during the monsoon, there seemed to be every justification for attempting to find an alternative. On Rongbuk Glacier Accordingly, on June 8, the very 'day after our final evacuation of Camp HI., the whole party began the ascent to the main Rongbuk glacier. 1 had proposed that Smi.':th-Wind-ham should regard this as a holiday from his long and uninterrupted labours at Camp I. He jumped at the idea, with a different object further ■wireless experiment; and brought along a light transmitter and receiver. Notwithstanding the seemingly interminable rough boulders, the ascent up the right bank of the main glacier •was a welcome change from the | monotonous and many times repeated journeys above Camp I. There w ; as a sense of freedom in the_ much wider vallev, and the fluted Lingtiren peaks and that grand mountain Pumori were a perpetual delight to work upon. Beyond rose range upon unknown range—a paradise for future explorers. 'And then, after some particularly odious boulder-hopping, we turned a corner and came upon a perfect little grassy oasis; grass at 18,000 feet and in the middle of it a lark's nest with two eggs in it! Grim Moraine Heaps This was the " Lake Camp " of last J 'ear's reconnaissance; it has a tiny ake, with a stream windipg through the meadow into it from under the grim moraine heaps above. Little flowers were beginning to push up through the grass, and made an irresistable appeal to Morris and Humphreys, who decided to staj' here for the present, to study and collect. Almost reluctantly we others pushed on next morning, though a perfect view of Everest showed that snow lay thick on the North face. Soon the going became distinctly bad; yesterday the boulders had been fatiguing but stable enough; now we found them — . miles of them—lying precariously perched on steep hillsides, ready to cascade down at a touch of the foot. At one place Oliver started a small rock-avalanche and somewhat narrowly escaped real trouble; while Warren and iWigram both had falls which excited ribaldry rather than commiseration. ,We passed Spender's survey camp of last year and, about an hour further on, close under the great Western flank of the North Peak, found an admirable camp-site near the edge of the glacier ice. That evening it snowed heavily—a process repeated on the four subsequent evenings of our stay in this Pl About five o'clock Smijth-Windham, who ' had enjoyed himself during the afternoon cutting steps up a, large serac under the pretence of setting up the wireless installation to his satisfaction, emerged precipately from his tent'and called me to witness that he had received a quite considerable shock from his apparatus, due apparently to electrically charged snow. Hostile Weather Reports

Certainly sparks were flying about in the tent, "but this did not alter the remarkable fact that with a. transmitter, of which the guaranteed range ■was five miles, Smijth-Windham contrived to establish communication with Sergeant Frawley at. Darjeeling, over 100 miles away, although a peak 24,800 feet high and immediately above the camp stood between him and his objective. In consequence the flow of ■weather reports from Alipore, all hostile, continued remorselessly, but it was pleasant to hear Big Ben striking the hour. The morning of June 10 broke nne, and we all roped up in small parties to go out on to the open glacier from Which the West side of the North Col might be seen. , As soon as the corner of the North peak had been turned the Col came into full view, and its aspect brought jis up " all standing." In the foreground almost flat ice etretched away for a mile or so; beyond that was a falling glacier through the crevasses and serac3 of which a ;way could certainly bo found; then a bergschrund of by no means formidable proportions, and finally perhaps 1000 feet of snowslopes leading direct to the crest. These slopes Mere steep, but probably negotiable in good conditions, while to their right were rockribs descending a great part of the way from the crest and well worth close examination.

Heavy Snow

The speed with which the climbers Bet off to obtain a nearer view was sufficient evidence that their interest had been thoroughly aroused. Unfortunately clouds were already coming up from Nepal, shortly to burst into heavy snow; and the tired men who returned to camp through the flurry that evening were only able to report that they, had ascended the falling glacier iwithout much difficulty, but saw nothing of the slopes beyond, j We discussed the position nnd deiaded that although the abominable r

Expedition Leader's Optimism

VALUABLE, INFORMATION SECURED

(World Copyright Reserved)

In this article Mr. Hugh Ruttledge, leader of the British Mount Everest Expedition, 1936, tells of the party's final activities prior to abandoning the attempt to climb the world's highest peak on account of the abnormal

weather prevailing. Mr. Ruttledge states that information gaired regarding another rout© to the summit will prove of great value to future expeditions.

weather had bet the seal 011 any hopes of an ascent of the mountain or even of the North Col from thjs side, Smythe and Wyn Harris, with a low good porters, should take a light camp u[> the perfectly sale icelall, establish themselves near the borgschrund (.out of roach of avalanches from the Col or lroin the North Peak) and take advantage of even an hour or two's line spoil to see I,ho slopes at close quarters. Meanwhile the other climbers, led by Shipton, would return to Camp 1. picking up Humphreys at Lake Camp on the way; would ascend the hast Rongbuk glacier again to Camp 11., and from there attempt tho North Peak, from which a particularly line view of tho north laco of Everest might possibly be obtained. Warren hoped to make tho ascent using oxygen, thereby securing valuable dataj unfortunately he was not at this time feeling very lit, and was obliged to give up tho idea. North Col Seen Clearly Next morning, June 11, the North Peak party set off for Camp 1., Kempson and Gavin first strolling across tho glacier to have a view over into Nepal from the Lho La, about two miles away. They looked in at our camp on the way back to report that from that point they had been able to seo tho North Col very clearly and were now of opinion that its general angle was not severe, the slopes easing oil considerably above the first 200 feet or so beyond the bergschrund; while the rockribs to tho right seemed to oiler a fair choice of routes. Smythe, wanting; a rest on this day, we four who were left at what we called "North Face Camp" got, everything ready for to-morrow and then basked in the hot sunshine of the morn-

ing, wrote letters, and listened-in to AUpore's warning of great Monsoon activity. Smythe cheerfully tried to persuade me that this message promised better things and that we might therefore discuss; a plan for the ascent of the mountain, assuming for the moment (a remarkable assumption) that the now vast accumulations of snow up there would diminish. But you can prove almost anything from a weather report by the simple process of taking a sentence out of its context; 1 remained obstinately sceptical until the invariable heavy snow of the evenings and night came to my help and drove us all to our sleeping-bags and to thoughts of th»» dinner which poor Passang, the cook, was struggling to prepare inside a very small Meade tent. Good Camp Site Everything looked very white on the morning of the 12t1i., but a hot sun was soon over the ridges of the North Peak, and Smythe and Shipton were off with eight porters. Of the latter, five would return from the higher camp in the afternoon; that excellent mountaineer Rinzing could be trusted to lead them back across the glacier without accident. He did so, bringing down with him a note from Wyn Harris which informed me that a good si to for the camp had been found at about 21,500 feet, and that the heat on the way up had been stifling. The note also contained a very sound appreciation of the general aspect of the slopes above. That night there was a particularly heavy fall of snow. The repetition of this .remark throughout my narrative inav be monotonous; the phenomenon itself was even more so. I joined Smijth-Wndliam in his tent and listened to the weather report from Cassandra —I mean Alipore. The game was clearly up, and Smythe and Wyn Harris had better come down bo lore things got worse, if it were possible they could get worse. We decided to go up tho icefall next morning, with Rinzing and five other porters, who could bring the camp down while we saw the Col for ourselves. The hot morning sun on the newlyfallen snow made the climb far from exhilarating. I allowed Hinzing to lead our rope, as he knew the way, and he showed that he was perfectly capable of dealing with crevasses. At about 20,000 feet, strange as it may seem the heat of the glacier was al-

most overpowering. Wo halted and sent on tho porters with a note to the camp above. The Col could bo seen very well from this point, and wo examined it with glasses for the best part of an hour before returning to camp. Later in tho day it came on to snow heavily, as usual, and I was much relieved when the two climbers turned up with all their porters safe and sound, and their tents. Great Energy They had not, of course, been able to set foot on the higher slopes, but their reconnaissance enabled them to form the definite opinion that the west side of tho North Col is negotiable and that m certain conditions it should bo definitely safer than tho other. With undiminished energy, Smythe sat down, and, in consultation with Wyn Harris, wrote down his impressions while they were still fresh. 1 am convinced that this note will be of great value to future parties, who will he well advised to make an ascent early in the campaign and placo fixed ropes on any sections that may be difficult for laden porters. Even if the route is not used as the chief lino of approach, a party caught by tho Monsoon on the mountain might find it the safest means of descent. Smythe and Wyn Harris had had a. very interesting time in their camp; this was discreetly pitched in a safo place, but avalanches were falling continuously day and night, from Everest herself nnd* from tho nearer North Peak. The wind of one gave the tents a bad shaking, to the horror of a porter who had not seen this kind of thing before. There was nothing further to bo dono but descend to Camp 1. and on to the Base Camp, and get ready for the march home. I felt sure that the North Peakparty could not succeed in such weather; they reioined us at the Base Camp on the loth., having had much the same experience as the reconnaissance party last year. They were turned back bv dangerous soft snow at about 23,400 feet. Reasonably Sale Wo have, 1 think, now proved that during the Monsoon most peaks up to about 2.'3,000 feet in height, at least in this part of the Himalayas can bo tackled with the assurance that snowslopes up to this altitude are reasonably safe (1 must make an exception of the east side of the North Col, which seems to be a law unto itself). Above 23,000 feet, Monsoon snow will almost invariably be found to be unmanageable.

We liad now finished with Mount Everest, and by June 18 were in full inarch for Darjeeling, the transport having come up from Shekar Dzong in good time and Morris having got everything ready with his usual quiet efficiency. There was a memorable last interview with the old Lama of the Rongbuk Monastery, who has become a great friend and cordially invited us to return. The party kept its form right up to the end, and there was no useless repining. Some would, quite naturally, have liked to do some exploration, either in this neighbourhood or among the ranges to the east which were partially studied last year. But the time of our permitted stay in the country was limited; I had been particularly asked to adhere to the route laid down in our passport, and I was anxious to save as much money as possible for future enterprise. The journey back, therefore, merits no special description, for we made but one slight detour to cross the Doya La, where the flowers and the views of distant peaks were something to remember. Porter Killed There was a tragic incident, involving our only casualty, at the rope bridge over the Phung Chu, which lower down becomes the Arun River. Here a porter, against advice and orders, attempted to pull himself along the ropes by sheer strength of arm. H«> became exhausted and foil into the rapids, where the water was tearing along at some 20 miles an hour and nobody could possibly save him. It was very sad that a good man who had come through the perils of the mountain should meet such an end. We marched at full speed across the plateau and down through the lovely Sikkiin Valley. At Gayokang, Shipton, Keinpson, Warren and Wigram turned westwards for a little climbing, but the rest of us came straight through to Gangtok, having covered some 250 miles in 18 days with all our transport. Here, unhappily, it became certain that almost all our homeward letters since about April 12, had been stolen. And so to Darjeeling, where all the heavy work of clearing up the affairs of the expedition has had to be done. We have failed again to climb Mount Everest, but T think that in 1933 and 1036 we have seen the worst that the mountain can do. and that, has been a. valuable experience. For my part, T can never forget the wonderful loyalty and steadfastness of Rherpa, Bhutia, Curkha, and Englishman alike; in that thought, nil regrets are lost. Rome day the mountain will be climbed.